Thought's Running Wild

Consumed by

inner demons,
I wake in the night

to blind sweats,
hoping with might,

for not as weapons,
gasping in thoughts

from past's beset....

Crazy in motion. Thought’s running wild,
forever to haunting the peace calming blind.
Running from my own,
having none to.., in closure's grown.

Candid sleep to still of night bleeds,
empty for answers into nothing's agreed.
Besot to fire's raging within,
in essence never... a fight to win.

Literary analysis

Consumed by inner demons, I wake in the night to blind sweats and thoughts running wild…The title of this poem is synonymous with the poets description of what he feels in waking from sleep in the middle of the night. The poem is written is rhyming quatrains (meaning a stanza made of 4 lines each).

The rhyme scheme follows in the following order: AAAA BBCC DDEE. The first stanza is quite straight forward. The gravity of these thoughts, the intensity of feeling is exemplified by the words ‘consumed by inner demons’. These words capture the inner fight with the self, haunting emotions that form turbulent tides within a person.

Line 4 of the first stanza uses extensive alliteration, emphasizing the ‘S’ syllable. This forms a parallel with the notion of gasping or struggling for breath, creating the impression of difficulty and forced exertion.

The entire poem is personified, as feelings or someone constantly on the run from something, some inner demon, as the poem is set in motion. The last line of quatrain 2 , the poets accepts the fact that he has still not come to terms or found closure on these disturbing issues that keep him awake in the middle of the night.

The third quatrain personifies the action of sleeplessness to the action of bleeding. Also a metaphor that captures this anguish to physical and emotional pain associated with bleeding and death. Despite the sorrow and emotional blur of this moment, no answers or solutions can come to mind.

“Besot to fires, raging within”, a striking imagery, a metaphor comparing the raging fires with that of the intense emotions churning within. A fire destroys and the final result is the dusty, dying embers with nothing left, but ash and remnants, nothing wholesome but destroyed. Try drawing a parallel between the two.

The closing line of the poem, sums up the futility of these inner demons when the writer throes in the towel in futility and claims that this is fight “in essence never to win”.

Although a fairly short poem, the imagery and poetic devices employed are numerous and adds to a better understanding of poetry and theme.

The themes covered here include fear, emotional stress, loneliness, isolation and searching freedom from self.

The tone is one of despair, helplessness and being placed in a corner of no return. Agitation and feelings of no control resonate all through this flowing piece. Notice that each starting word of a new quatrain starts with the letter ‘C’. This builds and compliments the overall structure of this poem.
 

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